Ephesians 6:3

Ephesians 6:3. That (‘ in order that') it may be well with thee, etc. The Apostle here follows Deuteronomy 5:16, rather than Exodus 20:12; the two passages differing slightly from each other. He, however, omits ‘which the Lord thy God giveth thee,' This omission gives the promise a wider reference to all lands, since ‘land' (here rendered ‘earth') meant in the Old Testament promise the land of Canaan. It is hardly safe to affirm that the original commandment necessarily implied the wider reference; and that Paul omitted the last clause because his readers were not only familiar with the passage but understood it in this wider sense. To give the promise an exclusively spiritual meaning is altogether unwarranted. It is to be applied ‘simply and plainly to individuals, subject of course to the conditions which always belong to such temporal promises' (Ellicott). The last clause is future in the Greek, but depends on ‘that;' suggesting a further result